RT. Hon. Ngunan Addingi’s story is that of doggedness and determination to succeed where many failed. In an environment where women’s participation in politics is not encouraged, she persevered, and won. As the country deals with the nagging Fulani herdsmen’s menace, she is one voice pushing the frontiers for peace, fairness and justice.

Naija Magazine Online recently visited her in Benue State. She displayed sheer brilliance, eloquence and measured fieriness in articulating her points.

The one of only two women in the Benue State House of Assembly (BSHA) shares her experiences in political struggles, the recently assented anti-open air grazing bill in Benue State, and what women must do to be more relevant politically.

Isn’t opposition to Open Grazing denial of cultural practices and Fundamental Human Rights of Fulani herdsmen?

That’s just kids’ play. How were the Fulani herdsmen dressing before? Let’s go back on that. Have they not changed? How did they use to carry their cows? They used to carry the cows and walk a lot of kilometres. Now, some of them transport their cattle by trucks. Why are they still not walking? These things (cultural way of life and human rights) are excuses.

Culture is not meant to make you deaf to reasoning, culture is meant to help you understand how to relate with others. The Tiv man’s culture is farming, how do we marry the two? Your culture is to walk around with cows, my culture is to farm, so, whose culture will let go for another?

Secondly, this is my land. Why are they not carrying these cows and walking with them in their states? Nobody is saying don’t carry your cows to graze, what we are saying is put them in a ranch. The whole world is ranching. The white man said we were on trees and walking naked in the past. Why are we not naked anymore? Things change, culture is dynamic, the world is changing. All of a sudden now you can sit down in Nigeria and talk to somebody in America. All these things they say are just excuses to remain dogmatic about their beliefs. You have to give way. At some point you have to look at it and say, “okay, where is the world going?” All of us are now doing internet, computers and all that, because all of us realise that social media is the thing. Ranching is the thing now all over the world. We cannot continue to carry cows back and forth on the streets, and say because it is our culture, no.

What about the cultures of peace, what about the cultures of living in harmony with your neighbours? Why are they not looking at those cultures? What about the culture of knowing that even they too feed, don’t they eat? If farmers do not farm, how would they eat? They cannot live on cows. Secondly, we are in a democratic setting. I keep saying it, cows do not have votes, cows cannot vote for anybody. It is human beings (that can vote).

Even in our constitution, the life that you must protect first is the human life. A human life is more valuable than a cow’s life. So they cannot sit down and be so dogmatic in their culture that they forget that the life that you take is a life that does not belong to you, and you do not have a right to take it. So because you want to graze, you end up killing someone on his farmland. How do you talk about that culture? Which culture is it of killing? It doesn’t add up.

On Restructuring Nigeria

We need to restructure the system. I am for equality. I don’t like this Nigeria where some people get more money from the federation, some people are minorities, we are all Nigerians. We copy some things, we forget other things. First and foremost, I feel Nigeria should be decentralised. The monies that trickle down from the federation is not enough to solve any state’s problems. Because a lot of states depend on the federal, they do not do anything. A lot of states need to look inwards to generate income.

There are states, like my state for instance, that have the capacity to feed Africa if we channel our resources properly, and we channel our youth and everybody to work. A lot of people are no longer working, especially with this thing we call politics. It has made people docile. People just sit down and they want government to bring money lets share. If we bring money lets share, what about development? What about ensuring agriculture grows?

Government should not be the one telling us that we should farm, no. Everybody needs to wake up and become a farmer. If you farm in your backyard, you will get everything. I remember the days of Operation Feed the Nation, but it wasn’t sustained. Green Revolution came, and stopped. Another one came, stopped. One of the greatest problems in Nigeria is sustainability. We start something, very laudable project, we leave it half way. What is wrong with starting and finishing? Let’s start and finish.

We have houses in this country that are 10 years and they are broken. You go to developed nations, and they have houses that are 400 years, 500 years. It just goes to show that we are not sustaining what we should sustain. Nigeria needs to restructure. There are certain things we need to sit down on a roundtable and realign them. Let’s look at this sharing of money at the federal level for instance. Why should some states get more than the others, are we not all states? Every state should go back to the drawing board and look at what they have and begin to develop. I think if we do that we will have a bigger nation. It’s like an account, if you take, take, take and you don’t put anything in, your account is going to be red. That’s where Nigeria is heading to. Let’s not get to that point where we go red. We need to do more.

For more of this interview please visit Naija Magazine Online www.naijamagazineonline.com

The Nigeria Constitution guarantess freedom of human movement and not freedom of animal movement.

Fulanis are free to walk from Kaura Namoda into the Atlantic Ocean, but the constitution did not give such right to their cattle, except they want to tell sane people they are equal to their cattle.

Criminal Herdmen have turned themselves to blood thirsty demons and blood sucking vampires, leaving trails of sorrow tears and blood anywhere they step.

Fulani herdsmen are looking for trouble then give them war,what are you people waiting for is it untill the farmers are totally impoverished or dead you people will now do something

they are looking for trouble ?

lol


na dem be trouble

Let’s look at this sharing of money at the federal level for instance. Why should some states get more than the others, are we not all states?

MAdam you did not try at all with this statement.

Some states are more naturally endowed than others and some State are lazier than others.

In this modern day, natural endowment count for nothing if the States can really apply themselves to governance. Technology, Pharmaceuticals/Medical, IT etc can generate more than what natural resources will generate forsme states.

What natural resources does Germany have?